eBay Robbery = Bayrob
April 16, 2019 6:08 AM   Subscribe

In which ZDNet puts together a pretty good summary of a Romanian malware gang whose members were found guilty by a US federal court just this last week -- The Bayrob malware gang's rise and fall: The story of how a talented computer science student and his friends created and ran a multi-million dollar botnet. [medium length read, pretty fascinating really]
posted by hippybear (9 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
What a wild ride!

They should name the made-for-TV movie "An Unfortunate Trip to Miami"
posted by chavenet at 6:23 AM on April 16, 2019


Always carry a burner...
posted by zerobyproxy at 7:42 AM on April 16, 2019


Interesting quote: "He could have worked anywhere he wanted for the same money he made as a hacker," our source said over the phone when describing Danet's programming skills."
posted by of strange foe at 10:02 AM on April 16, 2019 [2 favorites]


That's a really interesting read. I'm surprised the lengths they went to on some of it. This was more detailed than most scams to the point that I wonder if it's abnormal or if there are many others out there like this but they're small enough or not found yet so we don't know.

This is one of those situations where I'm in awe of the cleverness and skill that went into the many pieces of this and also angry that scamming people out of money is how some people choose to use that skill.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 11:20 AM on April 16, 2019


Came for the satisfyingly long prison sentences, was not disappointed.
posted by freecellwizard at 12:20 PM on April 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


DOJ ... roughly $4 million (Symantec placed the number at around $35 million)

Say an even split, $10M over 10 years, yeah he probably could have made more as a not-scammer.
posted by porpoise at 2:36 PM on April 16, 2019


Why such a large disparity between Symantec's number vs. DOJ's?
posted by jadepearl at 3:07 PM on April 16, 2019


Well I guess actually they haven’t been sentenced yet. That’s what I get for hot takes before finishing TFA. Every time I read something like this I get that “this is why we can’t have nice things” wave of sadness. People will just exploit their fellow humans for a quick buck and don’t give a fuck. In a way this makes me madder than physical crime because the people involved are often privileged white guys or have other avenues open if they were willing to engage with society.
posted by freecellwizard at 3:44 PM on April 16, 2019


such a large disparity

Probably has to do with what can be proven in courts of law vs. Symantec actually seeing all of their activity.

For financial crimes, do the courts ever go "ok, this is enough, lets not bother prosecuting the harder-to-prove stuff/ diminishing returns and all" ?
posted by porpoise at 4:01 PM on April 16, 2019


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